Book Censorship News, September 23, 2022

This week, PEN America launched a report on the present state of guide bans within the USA. The report discusses the 50+ “parents’ rights” teams working throughout the nation, each on the nationwide and native ranges, and the way these teams are accountable or related to not less than half of the guide bans which have taken place since July 2021. But who’re these teams? Where are they situated?

PEN’s report lays out and hyperlinks to a number of tales about numerous teams, together with this field exploring among the nationally-organized teams.

Read the report, significantly this part, to get a way of what concepts these teams are shaped round. For essentially the most half, it’s not simply guide bans. It’s the broader problem of “parental rights,” which turned a motion in 2020 with dad and mom demanding that colleges “reopen” in the course of the pandemic (the language right here issues, as colleges have been open however working nearly). The motion shifted in 2021 to demand that their youngsters be unmasked in colleges, and thereafter/concurrently, to demanding oversight and say in curriculum and supplies made out there to college students in colleges.

The database linked right here shouldn’t be complete, however represents a have a look at the teams who’ve been related with or straight linked to guide bans or challenges (or different curriculum modifications below the guise of “parental rights”). Some are extra lively than others, and a few have modified their names, consolidated, or in any other case reworked their buildings even since this listing was complied. Some are guardian teams and others are political motion teams. Many of the teams are linked to both their Facebook or web site presence. Not all states are represented, which doesn’t imply there are usually not teams in these states. There are not nationwide teams or their affiliated chapters included; PEN outlines these properly above, and the embedded Tweet above exhibits, in gold, the place the most important group at the moment has lively chapters.

List of regional teams advocating for “parental rights,” guide censorship and/or curriculum enter.

This is incomplete by nature, but when you understand of others working domestically to you and need to assist flesh out this useful resource, be happy to drop the identify, internet presence (if relevant), and state of operation on this doc.

Book Censorship News: September 23, 2022

• The metropolis of Keller, Texas, made the Keller Public Library take away a social media put up about banned books for Banned Books Week. At what level is all of this a parody of itself?
• In San Clarita Valley, California, “David LeBarron, director of curriculum and assessment for the William S. Hart Union High School District, said this was not a book ban — only that the committee decided not to carry the book in the library.” Deciding to take a guide out of the library is a guide ban, and the guide is This Book is Gay. But preserve bending over backwards to say it’s not a guide ban.
• Laura Blackwell, chair of the board of Cabarrus County colleges (NC), appears by no means to have walked a college hallway if Looking For Alaska bothers her a lot.
• Knox County colleges (ME) are re-evaluating Gender Queer after continued complaints.
• Meanwhile in Bonny Eagle High School, the choice on whether or not to take away Gender Queer was delayed two weeks.
• In Barrington High School (IL), each Flamer and This Book Is Gay will stay on cabinets.
• A frequent flier on the Crystal Lake, Illinois, District 155 is losing taxpayer cash on FOIA requests over particular person books within the library (one thing she will search for herself). This time it’s for Looking For Alaska. This identical particular person requested final month for the sexualities of employees members in a FOIA…
• Book banners in Wentzville, Missouri, have been calling the police, who confirmed as much as the college library twice. For the “we don’t coparent with the government” crowd, they positive love begging the federal government to do their parenting.
• “Washingtonville Central School District Superintendent Larry Washington issued a statement to News 12 Thursday, saying due to parent concerns, the book has been removed from the high school’s general library shelves to behind the librarian’s desk, where the book is available to students upon request.” Moving the guide (it’s Gender Queer) so {that a} scholar has to speak to somebody to borrow it doesn’t truly do the factor you assume it does. This is Washingtonville, New York, within the Hudson Valley.
• “Two parents have taken the lead in trying to take the book out of school circulation. Bud Campbell, father of four children in the district, said he found out about the book in August from a Facebook group. Though he hasn’t read the full novel,  he didn’t approve of the excerpts he had read. Campbell hopes to get it banned from the curriculum and library. ” Sounds about par for the course. The guide is Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, however this man additionally received The Handmaid’s Tale pulled. This is Gardner Edgerton School District, in Kansas.
• The Huntsville Public Library (TX) board assembly was stuffed with individuals speaking concerning the elimination of the Pride show on the library….each for good and never good.
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will go to vote in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, colleges subsequent month.
• Buried on this story about dad and mom rallying for a “Parents Rights” invoice in Pennsylvania is the girl who has filed a federal lawsuit over her native college having just a few books she doesn’t like on cabinets.
• “James Cutshall, one of the parents, claimed the TEDx Talk “How Embracing Tolerance has Failed Us” by Dr. Kristen Donnelly and the guide “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely promoted “anti-police … anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-nuclear family and anti-white male” agendas.” This is in Homer Center School District (PA).
• I’m paywalled, however the Springfield colleges (MO) rejected two guide ban proposals this week.
• And due to the brand new state regulation in Missouri, right here’s a have a look at among the districts and the numbers of books they’ve banned.
• Greenville County republicans (SC) need to ban LGBTQ+ books within the youngsters’s part of the general public library.
• “A lawsuit against the Sarasota County School Board [FL] alleging sexually explicit material in books was dismissed last month when a judge ruled the plaintiff had no legal basis. Then, the plaintiff filed legal papers that took aim at the judge herself.” This story is a trip, that’s for positive.
• East Central Regional Library (MN) is not going to take away It’s Perfectly Normal from cabinets.
• Victoria Public Library (TX) is not going to take away the books which were challenged.
• …But additionally, the Victoria Public Library (TX) board adopted a brand new coverage that may permit them to assessment whether or not books must be added or eliminated to the gathering primarily based on group enter.
• Nixa School Board (MO) made a number of modifications associated to public remark and guide challenges as a part of their consent agenda and now, dad and mom who’re in opposition to guide bans — of which Nixa has been participating — are sad.
• Every time a college will get a FOIA request for “all of the books in a library,” which may be accessed through a library catalog (sure, even in colleges), they need to be charged for the waste of time and vitality of it. This one occurred in Bowling Green, Missouri.
• “Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon said Tuesday she would support a statewide ban on ‘pornographic’ books in schools.” This actually is their platform proper now.
• Let’s Talk About It is being challenged in Lorain County Public Libraries (OH).
• “In an email to supporters, Take Action Kamloops called the SD73 board of education ‘public enemy number 1’ and described Rowse as ‘a woman who refused to stand idly by and watch them mask her children, vax her children, she did not and will not stand for the perverted sexual debauchery that the education system has become.’” This is in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Apparently Satan created “other genders,” too.
• Check out the books that will fail to fulfill requirements below Loudoun County (VA)’s new “sexually explicit materials” coverage.
• Greeley-Evans School District (CO) often posts their board conferences on-line however withheld the latest one due to dad and mom performing The Bluest Eye and Gender Queer. The video of their problem is obtainable now, although, and the district is contemplating modifications to public remark.
• “Under a new policy, Belton Independent School District [TX] parents can now question and lead the district to investigate books they find questionable or inappropriate.” Love that folks proceed to have extra rights to take away books than college students have rights to entry them.
• Buried on this story out of Wyoming — which is a must-read, because it actually outlines the methods by which sure political affiliations are pushing for public cash to be spent on agenda-laden, right-wing academic techniques — is {that a} guardian complained about Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and it was pulled from school rooms three days later.
• “The Livingston Parish Library Board of Control will maintain its current policies for challenging books despite a letter from the parish president asking them to move certain materials out of the children’s section.” This is a small victory for the rights of anybody to entry age-appropriate materials out of Louisiana. It signifies that LGBTQ+ books is not going to be restricted.
• A have a look at the efforts of these pushing again in opposition to guide banning in Missouri.
• Park City School District (UT) is reviewing the constitutionality of the brand new state mandate on having a coverage that opens the doorways to guide banning.
• “Parents group Moms for Liberty says it has ‘paused’ all 17 challenges to books it considers too sexually explicit or sexually violent to be on the shelves of Fauquier County school libraries while the school division fixes ‘the problems in their book selection and contestation processes.’” This is in Virginia.
• In Santa Barbara, California, the problem in opposition to Gender Queer in a highschool library helps right-wing candidates marketing campaign.
• “‘Every single person pushing this sex ed curriculum inclusive of subject matter is a sexual predator in my book and should be in jail,’ one parent said to applause during a school board meeting […] The new curriculum also includes subjects like mental health, peer pressure and bullying.” This is the basic anti-Social Emotional Learning argument, paired neatly with the anti-Comprehensive Sexuality Education argument (sure, “Sexuality,” not Sexual). This curriculum was nixed in Garwood, New Jersey.
• Valley City Barnes County Public Library Board (North Dakota) is coping with a problem of Let’s Talk About It.

Of Note

This week, not less than two main metropolitan public library techniques (Denver and Fort Worth) have had credible threats in opposition to them, resulting in their closure. While neither has shared the explanations behind them, that this occurred throughout Banned Books Week is extraordinarily regarding.

I used to be additionally on the City Cast Chicago podcast speaking about banned books, concerning the methods censorship is going on in Illinois, and why college board elections are essential. You can tune in right here.